…is not making this up

It just can’t be. I have put off writing these posts, somehow believing that if I don’t write about how my children are getting older, they will stop. It is painful, my chest is squeezing/ -34
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will do it, or how much I will cry. But I must write about all these lovely girls. First, I will actually publish the writing I did about Katy and Lola turning one. Then I will write about Ellie Mae. It’s going to be rough, folks.

Ellie turned three! And if you ask her how old she is, she looks at her hands and slowly arranges her fingers and tells you, “I’m free!”, completely charming whoever asked. Though she knew all her letters and numbers soon after turning 2, she now knows what they are for, that numbers quantify something and that letters make up the words in books and spell her name.

4/22/11

5/15/11 Studying

In the last few months her language skills have skyrocketed. Not only is she a wonderful conversationalist, she uses excellent grammar and you can often see her brain exploring the words she’s using and putting them together in new ways to subtly change their meaning. She’s constantly surprising us with the terribly mature words and sentences she uses. How bittersweet it is to watch your kids growing up!

5/22/11 Found her this way! She'd set up her guys to read to them while on the potty.

7/8/11

Jesse got a soccer ball and we all kick it back and forth, she loves to ride her “bike” and she’s starting to create games to play. She now arranges her toys into different life situations, sitting a bunch of little animals and people down for meals, or arranging them for naptimes with pillows underneath and blankies on top. She loves to lay down and play with whatever her baby sisters are batting at.

7/9/11

8/1/11

She still loves books, but movies are also often requested. She wants to completely independently choose what she wears and usually refuses any help to put it on. She’s currently in a stubborn phase of refusing to wear long sleeves or pants, so is learning about being cold. She also prefers her panties off, so we have had to make rules about going outside without clothes on. Obviously, that they all must be in place before she can go out.

8/24/11 Stinson Beach

8/31/11 Baking a cake

For a long time now, she’s been able to sing all of the songs we sing together and can recite many of her books page by page. She reads to her babies and I see now, over in her dollhouse, that she has placed the mommy she unwrapped today (from her good friend Brooklyn) onto the toilet. For, I imagine, an all-night poop.

9/13/11 First day of "school"

9/13/11 See my new shoes?

She is, of course, gorgeous. Her hair got so long and thick that I trimmed it and will again soon. It’s still probably blond, but as it gets longer, the new growth might be closer to brown. Her eyes are a lovely green/brown/blue, that is unlike any hazel I’ve seen before, but could only be called hazel. Her skin is very soft and sweet and she smells so good when you cuddle up next to her. Her eyebrows are still incredibly expressive.

9/30/11 Gave the babies some toys and blankies

10/2/11

Her skin looks fairly light, but must not be as light as mine, because even with forgetting sunscreen now and then this summer (I’ve been a little distracted), she has yet to ever have a sunburn. I hope she got Jesse’s family’s tendency to produce melanin rather then burning. She is still long and lean with a little round belly. At her 3 year appointment she weighed 27.5 pounds and was 36 inches tall. Which lands her squarely where she was born, in the 25th percentile for both. I’d say she’s perfect.

10/7/11 With Faith. Ellie didn't manage to blow out her candles by herself on any of the 3 cakes we lit.

Can you believe they’re already four months old? Or that it has only been four months. Which is more incredible? When they were born they were only tiny little handfuls and now they are getting difficult to hold onto 2 at a time.

Very first baby picture - Lola, frothing at the mouth, Katy not yet into the world!

They have come so far in these four months, it’s a shame I haven’t gotten around to writing about them until now. They have absolutely dazzling smiles with cheek dimples and double chins and raised eyebrows. As they smile they often initiate a conversation, little buzzes in the throat and ahs and oohs. I noticed their first smiles within a day of each other when they were 7 weeks old, which was only about 2 weeks gestational age!

6 Weeks

They play with their tongues a lot, seeming to taste the air with them. I love to see their tongues curling up into their mouths as they smile, sticking out to taste the world and getting ready to curl around when they nurse. They have the cutest little mouths and when they cry, they stick out their bottom lip far enough to park a small car.

4 Weeks

When they are playing on their backs or getting their diaper changed, they energetically flex and straighten their legs. When they stretch out their arms, they barely reach higher than the top of their heads.

5 Weeks

They have just started to look at each other and I caught Lola smiling at Katy a few days ago (Katy was looking elsewhere). They have flipped both from front to back and back to front, but so far don’t reliably do either. They are playing with toys, if you count looking at and batting with hands playing. Their favorite inanimate object is the monitor (which hums and slightly flashes its lights) next to the changing table, which they look at immediately and smile and coo at.

4 Weeks

They lost most of their newborn inch long blond hair and have grown back a new centimeter of the same light color. Light enough that they are called bald by passersby. Their big eyes have lightened to a fairly bluish tint, which is pretty close to Ellie’s at this age. They have lost some of their milia, but still have some of the white freckles here and there. They have very soft and fair skin. It’s delectably kissable. Their baby cheeks and fuzzy heads feel like heaven up next to me.

5 Weeks

As I write this they have nursed to sleep and are now sitting up in my arms, curled together with their heads within reach of kisses. And their blond eyelashes against their cheeks and their soft breathing in my ears. How lucky I am!

Ellie has been running around the house in the mornings and afternoons with her bottom free to the breeze. She makes it to the potty almost every time. It’s funny to see how her mind works. She’ll just be in the middle of a conversation with us about cooking or Mr Potatohead and then says, “pottie” and runs to the bathroom. Amazing! So today’s experiment is putting some pants on, but no diaper. I’ll update as the news comes in…

So, as I suspected she’d do, she came to me a half an hour later saying pottie and looking down at her wet pants. No big deal, we’ll try again another day. We’ve been too busy the past few days fighting her raging fever to think about where she’s peeing.

Nope, Ellie’s not 2 years old. Only 24 months and that’s still just a little baby, right? Jesse and I were discussing last night how bittersweet her ever-increasing age is. Every new and amazing think she learns leaves behind a previously amazing and adorable milestone. I just can’t believe she’s grown up this much in so little time.

Ellie and a grizzly at the zoo 8/19/10

Shirt reads, "I'm with stupid" 9/15/10

Little Ellie Mae has quickly become an excellent communicator, though it helps to know her language. In addition to many recognizable words, she says “Hoh” to mean “yes”, “deedleedle” to mean dirty, and “no” to mean “more”. I know these words will change and I almost can’t stand it. She whipped out “Popo” for purple in the bathtub last night with absolutely no preamble. She now strings words up into goofy sentences that still only follow her own grammar rules.

Trying to beat Daddy 9/17/10

Sushi 10/1/10

She loves to cook with me in the kitchen and often before I even know I’ve mentioned cooking, she’ll be going to the closet to get her stool to help up at the counter. We all made sushi together a few weeks ago, and she made such a lovely mess on the table with Jesse, also eating an enormous amount of sushi rice and avocado. Avocados are a favorite of hers, as well as berries, ice cream, beans and jerky.

Spicy salsa 9/26/10

Smile! 9/21/10

Ellie Lu wants all her shirts to have “hats” (hoods), going so far as to yank at the back neckline of all her shirts. She also yanks at Jesse and my shirts to try to get them up over our heads. When we all, as a family, have hoods on, she’s extremely proud and marches off, holding our hands.

9/26/10

9/17/10

She’s constantly taking on and off her shoes and socks, going for the craziest combinations. I have, more than once, gotten out and about only to realize she is wearing two different socks and two different shoes. She also wants to dress and diaper her babies (dolls, stuffed animals, tiny plastic figurines), as well as wanting to nurse them. When she’s done, she passes them to me to nurse as well.

Wet 9/28/10

She still loves to dance, but it has become a spastic, almost dangerous movement. She twists, bops, and jerks her little body around and into things. She also danced right off the coffee table a few weeks ago and after crying for a bit, insisted on climbing back up again.

Raspberries 9/16/10

She loves to get into the shower with us, but is scared of the spray. She mostly end up standing in there and shivering and keeping up her end of the conversation. At the mention of a bath or shower, she starts tugging at her clothes and undressing.

Birthday Cake 10/7/10

Birthday Present 10/7/10

I’ve decided that modesty need only apply to myself and therefore, can tell you how stunningly gorgeous Elena Mae is. Her hair has darkened to a very light brown underneath with golden blond streaks on top. Her skin is perfection, the softest thing I have ever touched. Her eyes are the same dark green hazel as they were a year ago. She loves to give us kisses with her rosebud mouth and snakes her little arm around my neck to hold on to me and give me hugs. Her little hugable body is soft in the belly and skinny down the legs.

9/15/10

She is everything right, everything good and everything we could have ever hoped for. And more.